This invention relates to a toy ball game with a field or a playface, wherein said playface comprises one or more mechanisms that protrude above the playface. The ball game can be a football game, and in that case the mechanisms simulate players on the field and are resiliently mounted on the playface and arranged for a user to manually flex them away from their neutral position. When a mechanism is subsequently let go, it willxe2x80x94due to the spring forcexe2x80x94revert to its neutral position, the return movement of the mechanism will impart kinetic energy to a ball located on the playface close to the mechanism, ie at the foot of a simulated football player, whereby a kick is simulated that causes the ball to travel across the playface.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,086,778, U.S. Pat. No. 3,118,673, DE 1,163,712, and DE 2,263,398 disclose such toy ball games wherein the players on the field are figures with human features, and wherein there are provided at the foot of the figure disc-shaped, spherical or barrel-like base elements that have circular horizontal cross sections. When such figures are flexed away from their neutral position and let go, following which spring force causes them to revert to their neutral position, the base element will impart xe2x80x98a kickxe2x80x99 to the ball whereby the ball is caused to move away from the figure.
These prior art toy ball games are associated with several drawbacks. The play figures in all of these prior art toy ball games are mounted on the field in such a manner that they are unable to rotate about a vertical axis perpendicular to the field, while all players have a permanent orientation relative to the field whereby their faces are oriented eg in their own direction of attack. When a player is to kick the ball in a direction which is different from the direct attack direction, the figure has to kick the ball sideways or even backwards relative to his own orientation. This is unrealistic.
It is a further drawback of the prior art toy ball games that it is difficult to aim accurately with the player figures with ensuing poor kicking accuracy which results in frequent misses of the aim.
It is yet a further drawback of the prior art toy ball games that the user will naturally seize the head of the figure to flex the figure away from its vertical, neutral position. The figure being in the flexed position, the user has to aim by changing or adjusting the flexing direction while simultaneously having his hand or at least a finger on the figure""s head where the hand prevents a clear view and thus also an accurate aim.
These an other drawbacks are remedied with a toy ball game according to the invention where the figures are able to rotate about an axis which is vertical or perpendicular to the field. Hereby a user is able to rotate the player figures in such a manner that the figure to be activated to kick the ball turns its front in the direction of aim which makes the game more authentic.
An arm that protrudes horizontally from the player figures enables the user to flex the figure away from its neutral position, which is usually vertical, by pressing that arm downwards. The hand of the user will hereby be located considerably lower than is the case when he seizes the figure at its head, and thus the hand will not prevent the user from obtaining a clear view in the aiming direction. Hereby the user obtains an improved overview of the game and a more accurate aim is hereby allowed.
In accordance with the invention the base elements of the player figures have a concave shape that matches the ball which permits the ball to occupy a stable position when in contact with the concave shape at the front of the base element. When the user changes his direction of aim by turning the player figure, the ball will follow and always be accurately and steadily positioned before the figure, and the user is allowed to kick the ball exactly in the desired direction.